Visions
Chapter 73: Before the Dawn
She remembered it quite well- she was barely three, barely able to string together sentences longer than four or five words, when she made a demand of her father. The tallest tower of the castle, a stone-gray pillar that rose above the stone-gray mountain it sat on, had been empty for as long as she could remember. The stairwell that ran to its top, which ended in a chained trapdoor, only inflamed her curiosity and propelled her through the locks and into the circular room above.
It was there where she discovered the breathtaking view the tower gave to the land, and it was there where her father had found her, face pressed against the old and cloudy glass. He was still catching his breath from chasing her up the staircase when she announced she was moving her bed up here.
And so, over the course of a minute, the Ox-King blinked, smiled, laughed, and agreed. It wasn't her bedroom for long- her father had let her find out on her own how impossibly frigid the room could be in the winter, and sadly, she was forced back to Earth- but she had always made a point of making the long trip up and leaning on the railing of the tower's only balcony. Some things came easier to her here. She'd gaze out on the world, follow the puffs of smoke drift into the sky from the village at the mountain's base, or watch the area's only river thrash its contents toward the mountain only to cut away sharply at the last possible second.
She imagined her father came up here when he was younger and needed to remind himself of the land he cared for. There are always day-to-day tasks and duties that distract from the important things, the bigger picture- whatever it was all for. So, here... he might have gotten perspective.
That's the word. She relaxed, feeling a weight slide off of her. Perspective.
Chi-Chi hunched further down on the railing. Not a single inch of the moon shone in the night sky, and even after giving her eyes several minutes to adjust, she could still see nothing. Not a single light reached her from the sleepy village below, nor could she see the river dig through the land. The one lit candle, set on a table in the room behind her, might have been the only visible thing for miles around.
A twinge of paranoia shot through her and raced up and down her spine. She turned her head around, scrutinized the meager candle… and shook her head before shoving it into her arms entirely. No reason to be tense… no reason to have this anxiety. The last thing she needed to do was reignite the pulse of bodily concern- heart pumping, nerves jumpy, skin sweaty- that had woken her up in the middle of the night in the first place. And yet despite how much she reminded herself of the invalidity of what she felt, she couldn't shake the feeling. Something had felt off recently, even with everything else in her life being as ordered and good as they've ever been.
It… probably related to him.
She had had real doubts- doubts she would never dare tell anyone else- in those first years after Gohan was born. She had known his father well enough to love him- for as brief and painful as that was. Kakarot was, on different occasions, brave and cowardly, caring and cruel, and oscillated between opposite ends of the same spectrum as much as anyone she had ever met. He had, she believed, been tragically molded by good and evil alike.
And so she worried the same might be true for his son. It had been difficult to section herself and Gohan off from the world during those first years- but she never forgot what Gohan's namesake had done when faced with a similar situation decades before. Gohan would stay on Fire Mountain until she was sure.
Eventually, as it tends to do, the world butted back in; she reconnected with those who cared about her, defeated an alien invader, got mind-controlled (she still wasn't quite sure what had happened there) and punched a gaping hole in the castle, and saw off and welcomed back a victorious mission to and from space. But at the end of all that, she had returned to Fire Mountain, and had expected the next couple years would be the same as the ones that came before them.
She was pleasantly surprised. Under her father's watchful gaze, and coupled with Yamcha's unexpected but steady presence and her own direction, Gohan flourished. He smiled, asked questions, and was extremely well-behaved- better than most kids his age, she suspected. Gohan could be a little shy; but she preferred him hiding behind her leg whenever a sleepy, early morning mountain cougar or bear wandered into the courtyard than killing it as his father would have done.
For the first time in his life, she finally felt she could take her eyes off of Gohan- though only one eye, and not more than a few minutes, of course. During her regular training spars with Yamcha, her sense of his pure white ki never left his mind, even though she now trusted her father to watch over him alone.
Maybe that was why she was up here now; her mind had run out of things to worry about to the point where she worried about nothing. She would have never let her body wake her up in the middle of the night and lead her to a sightless vista a few years ago.
She again tried to find some detail in the darkness. Her eyes were useless. Far too dark; world too impenetrable.
Chi-Chi wiggled her nose and closed her eyes. She wondered, if she really concentrated, whether she'd be able to hear the distant thrashing of water far below…
About a minute later, two knocks on wood came from somewhere behind her. As hyper-tuned as she was to hearing something miles off, Chi-Chi yelped and nearly threw herself over the railing.
'Chi-Chi?' a concerned, muffled voice asked. 'You up there?'
She steadied herself, drew in and out a few controlled breaths, and turned her head. 'I'm here,' she said.
'Can I come up?'
'Go ahead.'
With her consent, Yamcha flipped the trapdoor open, and climbed into the room. While he straightened, his eyes drifted to the lone candle.
'Ah,' he remarked. 'So that's what I saw.'
Chi-Chi stared at him. 'You saw that from the castle?'
He gave her a wolfish smile. 'More like the castle grounds.'
'You were up and walking about, then?'
'Pretty much.' Yamcha looked around the room. 'This is where you do that, then?'
'Pretty much.' She stared at him for another half-second, then waved her over.
Yamcha slid into place next to her, hands clasped and leaning on the railing with his forearms. 'So…' he said, head turned away from her. 'Whatcha doing up here?'
'What were you doing out on the castle grounds?' Chi-Chi countered.
'Couldn't sleep. You?'
'Same. Why couldn't you sleep?'
'Indigestion.'
He waited a second. She waited, too. 'You didn't say anything,' he said, turning to her. His face was barely visible in the dim candlelight. 'So, I'm guessing you don't have indigestion.'
'I don't,' Chi-Chi said. 'I don't have a reason for being awake right now, to be honest. I just sorta… woke up, and came here.'
'Aw, come on,' Yamcha said, rolling his head. 'You must have a reason. It's, like… well, it's definitely past midnight.'
'No,' she maintained, 'I don't think I do, actually...'
She saw what she assumed was a finger raise to his head- it was too dark for her know for certain. 'Well,' Yamcha said, tapping his chin, 'if you don't know… how about we play a guessing game?'
'Who said I wanted to know the reason?'
The comment, uttered tersely enough to throw a wrench into their flowing-back-and-forth, grabbed Yamcha's attention. As he turned again to look at her, she felt the need to put more than a few inches between them
'Well,' Yamcha said mischievously, 'it sounds like you do have an idea, after all.'
'You're getting under my skin,' Chi-Chi griped, pointedly looking away to something she couldn't see. 'I didn't ask you to come up here.'
'Oh? Didn't you?'
Irritation and embarrassment rose against his playful tone of voice. 'No,' she stressed, whipping around her head angrier than she'd intended, 'I didn't-'
She cut herself off immediately at the sight of his face- he had come closer, making his face just visible in the light, and was struck by the lack of any impishness. Instead, she saw… him being present, attention solely fixed on her.
He raised an apologetic hand. 'Sorry. Didn't mean to rile you up.' He gazed away. 'This is your space,' he turned back, eyes calm, 'not mine, right?'
'Sure, but,' she said, staring back, 'I mean- you- uh…'
'I'll get out of your hair,' he said, tracing with his eyes the flow of her hair down the right side of her head and onto her shoulders, 'your…' he brought his eyes to bear on hers, and...
Oh, Kami...
'... face…'
He was horribly, surreptitiously close. Barely a few inches from her face to his; and yet he waited. His eyes continued to stare at her, but there was no expectation or impatience- he was simply present.
An indescribable sense of power began to pulse through her. With just a lean...
Somehow, without her realizing, she had gotten halfway there, and somehow, in that state of total stupefaction, her brain picked up on something utterly irrelevant to the crisis at hand.
Hold on...
Sound had a way of traveling in the far-reaching confines of the castle. Chi-Chi tuned her attention on the opening the trapdoor had previously covered… and heard the faintest repetition of thudding on wood.
She gently pushed herself away from Yamcha and the railing.
'You hear that, right?'
0o0o0
She recognized Yajirobe, doubled on and out-of-breath, sagging on her door-frame.
'How… do you know what time it is?' She asked, while making a mental note to throw her obviously cursed candle down the mountain at the next possible opportunity. Drawing all sorts of... weirdness tonight...
He lifted his head, gulped another chunk of air, and fell back onto his knees. 'I… I ran… all the way… from Korin's Tower.'
'That's… that's on the other side of the planet!' Chi-Chi realized, startled. She glanced past him to the darkness. 'You ran from there, through this?-'
'I… need to know…' he said, pulling himself up again. 'Do you… have the pager... Bulma gave you?' His head dipped. 'Don't… have… mine… not sure if… I ever… got…'
'I get the idea,' Chi-Chi said, frowning. 'I think I have mine somewhere around here… though I haven't seen the thing in a few years.' She touched his chin and helped him level his head with hers. 'Are you trying to get in touch with Bulma?'
'Yes,' he exhaled.
'Well,' she let his head drop. 'That's easy enough- I can use a telephone to call her, about…'
The corners of her mouth curved down. 'Am I right in taking your unprompted middle-of-the-night request as a sign of something… bad happening?'
Yajirobe glanced up at her and sighed onto his knees one last time.
0o0o0
Pure white light suffused the room with a purifying air, and fell down on Chi-Chi's lab like rain sowing the land. One of her self-imposed goals as a scientist was to invent something as revolutionary as electric light- something that allowed people to live and work no matter the time- as Bulma herself was doing at this very moment.
If she hadn't been so caught up in worrying about extra-planetary matters, didn't have that nagging voice in the back of her head telling her to always be working on something to make the planet safe…
Bulma blinked, and lifted the device. It was shaped like a triangle, with a thin, black display starting at the bottom and gently morphing into an ad-hoc receiver and antenna. It was, frankly, ugly, but what prototypes aren't?
Though… technically, this is a second attempt at the design. Pretty sure this won't explode on me like last time, but it still looks ugly as heck...
She was lost in thinking up a better aesthetic design for the device when her landline telephone, centered in the upper right corner of her workbench, rang.
'Hey,' she answered with a button press, shifting on her elbows to that side. 'What's up?'
'Got someone named "Chi-Chi" calling you,' the nighttime telephone operator-slash-night guard-slash-resident napper answered. Bulma could tell from his voice which of his three jobs he had just been doing. 'Should I patch her through?'
Bulma glanced at the digital clock at the other end of her workbench- 3 AM. Didn't make much of a difference to her. 'Sure,' she said, grabbing the telephone's handset and leaning back in her chair.
There was a brief pause, the sound of the operator grunting, silence…
'...'
'Hey- Hey Chi-Chi, what's going on-'
'...'
'No, you didn't wake me up.'
'...'
'Check what?'
'...'
'...'
Bulma stood, nearly ripping the handset's cord clear off the receiver. She overcorrected, nearly fell flat on her workbench, and slapped it and its stupid nailed down telephone.
'Stupid… corded… piece of shit… yes, I'm still here,' she grumbled, pushing her chair away. 'Yes… yes, I… yes, I understand that. Look, I'll-'
She started running the fingers of her free hand through her hair. 'Ok, Chi-Chi- let me go check, and in the meantime, I'll keep you on the line.' Carefully, she started withdrawing from her workbench, testing how far she could before the phone cord was stretched to its limit.
'Just, uh… I need to…'
Bulma gulped, and dropped the telephone- it fell to the ground like a brick- and she sprinted out of her lab, sending junk skittering in her wake.
0o0o0
Bulma shone a bright light into the bedroom, and to her comparably-insignificant-yet-still-important relief, she woke the right person.
'Sweetie?' Dr. Briefs said groggily, fumbling for his glasses on the nightstand. 'What's going on?...' He paused, stared at the bedside clock. 'Is that time correct?'
Bulma tapped impatiently on the door. 'I forgot how to access the satellite. I need your log-in.'
Her father found his glasses, his slippers, and pulled on his bedside bathroom from its hook on the wall. 'What for?' Dr. Briefs asked as he tightened his bathrobe. 'You weren't planning on using the thing after I went to sleep.'
'Something… came up.'
Dr. Briefs immediately recognized the look in his daughter's eyes. 'Let's go,' he said, frowning and pushing past her. Bulma quietly closed the door and followed quickly behind him.
They moved efficiently through Capsule's Corps' pure white, well-lit, and spookily deserted halls-which was was typical of this time of night. Thought it was odd that they didn't encounter a single person on their walk. Usually there was a healthy number of researchers working the night shift on any given day- night. Night's the word...
She realized how unnerving it would be if they strode across the entire building without encountering a single person, and she pushed the thought- the possibility- from her mind.
When they reached her father's lab, and after he jumped into his observatory chair with enough vigor to shame people half his age, only then did she realized she had knotted her shoulder-length hair with repetitious, anxious hand movements. Scowling, she worked to undo the bunch.
'So,' her father said, oblivious to her struggle, as his chair swung underneath the telescope. Once it stopped, he pressed his face to the viewing port. 'What am I looking for?'
'Ships- any kind, any amount,' Bulma said, her hands busy- almost uselessly so- around her head.
'Big or small ones?'
'I don't know.'
'You're not thinking of a fleet, are you? Because I have a program that should have-'
'I don't know, Dad,' Bulma said, voice wobbling. 'I'm just trying to make sense of a bad night-time phone call, okay?'
'...Okay,' he answered, focusing. 'There's really only one direction in space where the PTO might come from… luckily for us, the satellite was already pointed towards the galaxy's center.'
'Lucky,' Bulma echoed quietly, no meaning behind the word.
'Perhaps a bad choice of-'
Her heart nearly stopped. Glancing up, she saw her father had done just that. 'Dad?'
He stayed still for a long time, his hands the only part of him moving as he adjusted the lens' focus. Finally, he broke away from the port, and turned to Bulma with a pinched, almost sick face.
'You'll want to take a look at this…'
0o0o0
They stood the closest to the railing and the farthest from the others. Launch had claimed she wanted to be close to the tower's circular boundary in case "she had to scram, quick.' Under more normal circumstances, Tien would have questioned this, but when he surveyed the people and faces gathered… he didn't blame her. The energy was all off. All because of a pager ringing...
'This all seems very dramatic,' she said, somewhat contemptuous of the worry the others showed. 'Why not tell us what's going on via pager?'
'I assume they want to talk strategy,' Chiaotzu, standing next to them, said. 'You know- come up with a plan-or-plans.'
'Which typically happens after we find out what's going on.'
'You're just grumpy because you had to wake up in the middle of the night.'
'And? Doesn't change that I'm grumpy.'
In her defense, it was a dark night. Tien could barely make out the tower's other end… though it wasn't like he had anything better to do than that. As a reward for groggily pulling himself and two others out of bed, he was now being forced to wait until everyone arrived for an explanation for what was going on.
He scanned who was here; towards the tower's center, he saw Krillin and Rayne, hastily dressed in their old orange Turtle gis; towards another end, he saw Yajirobe hanging near the platform's edge, one hand rushing between the other to his mouth; and near Krillin and Rayne he saw Chi-Chi, dressed in the colorful plated armor Tien remembered her wearing at the 23rd WMAT, standing next to Yamcha, who was still wearing the turtle shell he had lugged around at Kame House.
Tien did and still found the thing a little ridiculous. Shen never made him and Chiaotzu wear crane bones.
Belatedly, he realized how quickly two years had gone by. Krillin's lessons on the Kaioken hadn't lasted more than a few months, and since then… everything was a blur of training. He hadn't really seen anyone outside of Launch, Chiaotzu, and Suno during her occasional visits. They were all still young, and, realistically, didn't look very old… but it was, at least in Tien's opinion, undeniable that any of them were kids anymore. But as for whether they were fully-fledged, capable adults…
He frowned, and turned back to Launch and Chiaotzu. Snippets of their conversation floated over to him. It sounded like Chiaotzu was fighting a losing battle.
I did my part getting them here… Tentatively, he stepped away, and glanced back to make sure they hadn't noticed. Yeah… He slid into a walk.
Yamcha and Chi-Chi saw him approach well in advance. 'Hey,' Chi-Chi greeted. 'It's been a while.'
Tien dipped his head, pulling up on his mouth's corners. 'It has.' His attention jumped to Yamcha. 'And how are you?'
'Good.' Yamcha fixed a vaguely satisfied smile on him. 'How's the training going?'
'How's the shell?'
'For the record,' Chi-Chi slid between them and their posturing, 'I don't let him wear it on the mountain.' She threw a look at Yamcha. 'I don't want Gohan getting any ideas.'
Yamcha scratched his head. 'Didn't your Dad train under Master Roshi? Doesn't he have a shell of his own lying around the house?'
'He does,' Rayne said, pulling up with Krillin behind them. She looked to Chi-Chi. 'Saw it in the basement once, long ago,' she said warmly.
Chi-Chi smiled, nodding her head an inch. 'Long ago.'
'I'm sorry,' Krillin said, half-frowning, half-smiling, 'but I couldn't help but overhear-' he glanced between Yamcha and Chi-Chi, '-are you staying at Fire Mountain now, Yamcha?'
'I am,' Yamcha answered, puffing out his chest. 'I've become a darn good teacher to Gohan.'
'Good sparrer, too,' Chi-Chi chipped in. 'When he's around.'
Chi-Chi's comment drew everyone's attention to Yamcha; he seemed surprised, but he quickly reassumed his earlier attitude. 'I still visit Kame House from time to time. Make the rounds, and so-on.'
Tien witnessed an unasked question bubble to Krillin's face, born of something Yamcha had or hadn't said and a thought Krillin had clearly mulled over before.
Too bad for them that the pause in their conversation had reminded him of the strange energy in the air.
'So… anyone here know what us being here is about?'
By chance, Tien had been scanning their faces as he said this, and by chance, he saw Chi-Chi's give the slightest thing away; her lips had curled inward.
His gaze returned to her. 'You have something to say, Chi-Chi?'
Chi-Chi's eyes jumped away from him. 'It's not my place.'
'But you know?' Rayne asked, frowning at her.
'Very little. I only passed along a request to Bulma… and then got the same page as everyone else did.'
'What request?' Tien probed.
Chi-Chi abruptly lifted her head, and stared past them. 'Ask him.'
Tien turned; from the far side of the tower, two shapes became finer in the darkness… and his breath quickened. Side-by-side, Piccolo and Korin strode into the tower's center. The Namekian, stolid and tight-lipped, was otherwise free of tension. The same could not be said of Korin; Tien saw how tightly his white hands gripped his staff
It hadn't been that long ago that Piccolo had tried to kill Krillin. Others might forgive and ultimately forget. Tien could do the former- he could recognize the value of Piccolo's help against Raditz and on Namek- but that did not mean he wanted to work with him. And if he knew something crucial not known to others...
Before Tien knew what he was doing, he strode across the platform. 'You know, don't you?' he asked Piccolo, point-blank.
The Namekian leveled his gaze on him. Tien faintly noted that small pockets of conversation around them died off. 'Know what?' he said evenly
Tien stared at him, gauged his response, and then turned to Korin. 'He knows, doesn't he?'
'Not really,' he said, white fur rippling in the dim light. 'You really ought to wait for the full explanation, given by the two people who know what they're talking about.'
Tien's face folded in confusion. 'What do you mean?'
Korin didn't respond- he looked past him. 'And now we can begin.'
Tien turned; at the other end of the tower- the end where he and the others had just been at before Tien had pulled them to this side- the group from West City tapped down. Suno studied the others as she landed, her ocean-blue gi with snow-white trim fluttering ever-so-slightly in the wind. To her left, Bez and Retu, dressed sleepily in Capsule's Corp's brown imitations of what a gi should look like- they even had the logo on their sleeves- carried Bulma by her arms and gently placed her down. She steadied herself, thanked and dismissed them with a single gesture, and faced the crowd writ-large. 'Well,' she said, 'I'm here- and it looks like you're all here, too. So…'
The way Bulma trailed off made it seem like she was waiting- waiting for someone, anyone, to say something before she resumed.
'...Well…' she said eventually. 'I guess... ' she looked away. 'Korin?'
Now prompted, the impromptu Guardian cleared his throat and began to speak. 'A few hours ago, I sensed something... unsettling. As you all know, I'm not a true Guardian of Earth… but I do get sensations sometimes,' he said, voice focused despite the ambiguity of his speech. 'Bits and pieces of a larger phenomenon. Most are gentle, some are stronger, and some…'
Unexpectedly, he shuddered. 'They're unpleasant. Even now, it continues to brush up against me…'
'Korin- through Chi-Chi and Yajirobe- asked me to investigate this… feeling,' Bulma jumped in without missing a beat. 'Said there might be something coming to Earth, and I, as the resident scientist, had the means to investigate this. So… I checked.' She pressed her lips together, body clamoring to speak.
'There are three small ships heading to Earth as we speak.,' she announced, making a conscious, visible effort to speak slowly. 'And they're going to land in a matter of hours.'
In the darkness, it was hard to gauge what reaction, if at all, swept through the others. Tien could only comment on himself- his heart-rate had skyrocketed. 'You're sure?' he asked, trying to distract himself from his own response. 'You're absolutely sure about this?'
'Saw them myself,' Bulma said, her voice commiserating with him. 'Tiny black specks in a telescope- but they're moving fast enough and have enough emissions material dragging behind them to be anything else. They're ships, for sure.'
'You're sure about that?' Launch spoke up from behind Tien. 'How can you tell that they're people inside them? Aren't ships with no people a- a thing?'
'I can't tell, to be honest,' Bulma answered. 'But… you can all sense energy, right?'.
She turned away from them, seemingly embracing the night, and walked to the edge of the tower. After studying the device at her wrist, she pointed skywards. 'That direction,' she advised them. 'Search there.'
Tien glanced at the others- everyone, really, except for Piccolo and Korin, who held back- and exchanged nods. As a group, they paced over to Bulma, placed their hands on the railing, and closed their eyes.
Finding a ki in the vastness of space was difficult even when given a general direction. Some had little experience- Bez, or Yajirobe- or had never developed the skill outside of combat. Only one had ever tried to refine it… as if prepared to confirm the slab dropped by fate was about to crush them.
'I sense three people,' Chi-Chi said into the focused quiet. She paused, and then, as if she had finally heard herself; '...three…'
0o0o0
'Alright,' Suno said, rising from her squat and roping everyone out of their heads and into the present. 'No reason to panic… no reason to feel anything, actually,' she decided, thinking in parallel with her speaking. 'So there are three people coming to Earth… big whoop.'
'Three people who are likely enemies,' Piccolo growled from the tower's center. He, with Korin, had not walked to the railing. 'Lest we forget the general attitude of the galaxy towards the Earth.'
'Hold on-' Rayne cut-in, rapping her fingers against her ribs. '-this doesn't make any sense.' She lifted her head to the others. 'Who in the galaxy would know about Earth, let alone where it is?'
Yamcha clapped. 'Good old guessing game!' he cheered. He shot a grin to Chi-Chi, who paled. 'We can use process of elimination to figure out who would know about the Earth, know where it is, and have a reason to come here. Simple!'
In response to the blank stares he got back, he motioned his arms to Tien as if he was tossing a rope to him. 'Come on! Throw out a name!'
'Uhh…' Tien wracked his head. 'Ginyu?'
'Not possible,' Bulma said, stepping away from the railing. 'I rigged his navigational drive to wipe itself, then catastrophically fail mid-flight. His ship should have been nothing more than a very durable meteorite by the time he reached whatever planet he was hurtling towards.'
'Can't be him, then!' Yamcha enthused. 'Who else?' He turned to his right. 'Bez?'
The purple alien bristled. 'Don't look at me,' he said, brushing off their staring. 'I never knew where the Earth was- still don't, to be honest.'
'So you didn't tell anyone, either?'
'Can't tell someone something you don't know.'
'What about your former boss?' Krillin asked. 'What was his name-' his fingers started snapping.
'Frieza?' Bez replied. 'You're talking about him?'
'That's the one.'
'Don't think it'd be him,' Yamcha said, rubbing his chin.
Launch fixed a skeptical look on him. 'Wouldn't he have a good reason to come here and beat the crap out of us? Considering what we did in space, that is.'
'There's motive,' Bulma chimed in, 'but no means. If Namek hid itself successfully, then there's no way for him to connect us with our battles there- and that's ignoring how'd he know where the Earth is.'
'And why would he come now, three years later, and with no more than three ships?' Chiaotzu added. 'That's not much of an army.'
Tien processed this back-and-forth, and tried to cut through his sudden sleepiness to think. 'You know,' he said, running his palm across his scalp, 'I can only think of one person who had all three- knowledge, motive, and means- and he's long dead.'
Chi-Chi eyed him. 'Raditz, right?'
'Yep.'
'Good thing he didn't have any friends,' Yamcha said, off-the-cuff, 'or we'd-'
At that moment, for Yamcha, Bulma, and Tien, it fell into place like glass smashing against stone.
'No…' Yamcha muttered, stricken similarly to Bulma and Tien. 'That'd be bad.'
'What exactly,' Launch said testily, 'are you talking about?'
'You've all heard bits and pieces of this by now,' Bulma muttered, somewhat shocked. 'Two Saiyans apprehended Tien, Yamcha, and I on our way to Namek. Vegeta and Nappa- they were apparently partners with Raditz, and knew about his trip to Earth. They pushed us into working for them… and, with Bez's help, barely escaped with our lives,' she recalled, her voice squirming from the effort.' Suddenly, she looked up at the others. 'They knew where the Earth was then. There's no reason to think they'd forget- especially considering that we fled from them.'
'So we know two,' Piccolo said dryly. He raised an inquisitive brow ridge. 'And the third one would be?...'
'Dunno,' Bulma said quickly. 'It seemed like Saiyans, Vegeta and Nappa included, don't like to work with others- and we only ever met those two.'
'So perhaps it isn't them.'
Tien walked back to the railing, steadied himself with a hand, and gazed up at the night sky. 'No… I think it is. Now that I know what I'm looking for… I'm feeling some familiar kis.'
'Let's assume it is them,' Suno argued. 'If that's the case... '
She paused while her gaze traveled the tower's length. 'Should we be worried?'
Arms crossed, Bulma glanced away and gauged Yamcha and Tien's facial introspection. 'I'm not much of an expert with… ki… or energy, or whatever you call it,' she said. 'But… you two are stronger than you were when Vegeta and Nappa were bossing you around, right?'
'We are,' Yamcha answered, 'but it's hard to compare now with then. Sensing other people is all relative… if you're half as strong as someone else, that person'll feel like something incredible…' He shook his head. 'It's hard to describe. But all I remember is a feeling, and considering that I'm stronger than I was then… there's really no way to place what I felt then and next to what I feel now,' he finished.
'Well…' Bulma looked to Tien. 'What do you feel now?'
Tien spared another glance to the night sky. 'They're far away…' His eyes narrowed. 'I suspect that we're not getting a full sense of their power here. It feels like they are stronger, though.'
'I wouldn't worry too much, Bulma,' Launch said, half-grinning. 'Those two like to hedge their bets. I can sense the three up there just as well as them… and I'm not impressed.'
Krillin shot a look to her. 'You're saying?...'
She shot back an eminently pleased expression. 'What? You heard me.'
In rapid succession, Krillin glanced to Yamcha, who glanced to Chi-Chi, who glanced to Rayne, who cupped Krillin's head and whispered. Eyes wide, he scratched his neck.
'Either way-' Korin spoke into the aftermath, '-they'll be here in a few hours from now- just after dawn. So… you all must determine what you will do.'
'Do we have any other choice?' Yamcha asked, rising and drawing everyone's attention. 'If those three are here for a battle…' He curled one hand into a fist and gently pressed it into his other. 'I saw we give it to them.'
'Seconded,' Launch said quickly.
Piccolo gave a contemptuous scoff. 'What, do you intend to charge at them as soon as they land, then?'
Yamcha fixed a harsh glare on him. 'I do. What's it to you?'
'You go nowhere without me,' the Namekian growled at him, baring his fangs. 'And I don't intend to throw away my only chance for surprise for... theatrics.'
'Theatrics?' Yamcha mocked. 'That's a new word from you.'
'And an inappropriate one,' Tien joined in. 'If these three are Saiyans… every moment we leave them alone is a moment they can spend killing. In other words,' he said, voice low. 'You weren't in space, Piccolo. You didn't first-hand see the evil those two caused. They wiped out an entire base-' Tien blinked, realizing something. 'And we still don't know the reason why,' he said, glancing to Yamcha. 'So that's who we're dealing with. People who kill for either an incredibly vague reason or none at all.'
For a time, there was a taut unease that hung in the air between Piccolo and the two humans… and Suno, not wanting to waste potentially critical time, interceded. 'What does surprise get us?' she asked, trying to redirect the conversation.
Piccolo eyed her. 'Surprise lets us scope out who they are fully- including, if our guesses are right, who the third person is.' He turned to the others. 'We have an incredible lack of information. These three mystery invaders could know exactly how'd we react to their arrival, and plan for it. They could know our strengths, our weaknesses, and exploit them ruthlessly,' he went on. 'In short, they could have planned our annihilation and already countered everything we're about to do,' his gaze swept over them, but landed on no one, 'and we wouldn't even know. It would be foolish to engage them immediately without scoping them out first.'
Skeptical thus far, Rayne's face softened. 'So what do you suggest?'
'Suppress our power levels. Approach them and get a sense of their strength before engaging them. Make a decision to fight them, and on what terms, only then.' His gaze lingered on Yamcha. 'Basic strategy, in essence. We know and own the home terrain. We ought to use it.'
The line between Piccolo and Yamcha's faces was fine enough to draw. Neither blinked.
'Korin,' Yamcha said without looking away. 'Do you know approximately where these three are going to land- and how close they'd be to any cities?'
Korin registered his request with a dip of his head. His grip on his staff tightened. 'In a desert to the east,' he said, frowning. 'Should be far away from any living souls.'
'We could watch them as they land,' Piccolo suggested. 'And make a judgment there.'
'I actually agree with that,' Retu said from the side. He got a few looks in response. 'What?' he said defensively. 'It's a sound plan.'
'And one that will keep us alive if we need to run.'
Krillin spent a moment scanning faces- but he had heard enough. 'I agree with Retu,' he announced. 'Piccolo's plan is smart- and safe.'
'And, yet,' Launch said dryly, 'how are we supposed to fly to this landing site if we're suppressing our energy?'
The clinking of metal caused about a dozen pairs of eyes to turn in Bulma's direction. From her hip-pouch, she retrieved a red-color capsule. 'Got something for that,' she said, smirking.
0o0o0
In the end, they were swayed by Piccolo's plan and Bulma's enabling; if they could fly over there in a ship, why wouldn't they use it and hide in advance of the arrival of whoever was coming? Piccolo wasn't particularly happy to share the back-end of a small and crowded freighter plane- but he preferred it to the alternative.
Despite the tense attitude that preceded the ride, as Bulma flew every fighter present at Korin's to the projected landing site, people invariably talked and caught up with each other. Krillin and Rayne showed around a picture of their daughter with a bruise on her head, which she had earned from headbutting a stray tiger that had wandered into their valley. Yamcha trumpeted on quite loudly about the students he had trained and ultimately dismissed from the Kame School because "they didn't have the right stuff". Chi-Chi made small, but notable, comments about Gohan. Suno bragged about a special training regimen she had created with a certain gravity machine in West City. Tien and Launch, to Chiaotzu's embarrassment, grilled her on just how good her regimen actually was. Retu and Bez spent turns puzzling over when Bulma had made this plane- because they certainly had never seen it before on the Capsule Corp. grounds.
Yajirobe, sitting, snacked from a bag of chips in a corner, which was only slightly better than the unrepentant scowling Piccolo effected from the opposite one.
It was, overall, a pleasant prelude to whatever came next. Krillin reflected that, even though they all seemed to come together nowadays only in moments of potential crisis… they made the most of it.
He did not, of course, want any more chances to catch-up under these circumstances.
There was a single window in the back of the plane- odd, considering that it was only on one side and was shaped vertically. Krillin found himself gazing out it as the first tendrils of day, bands of blue and red settling on each other like layers of rock, presaged the sun's appearance. It was beautiful in the wasn't-gonna-last kind of way.
As if summoned by his thoughts, Tien appeared at his side. He pulled his gaze from the window.
'How far along did you three get with the Kaioken?'
Tien took over his role of staring out the window. 'Chiaotzu struggled with the first level, then gave up. Said it was a physical technique, and that he didn't learn physical techniques.'
A ghost of a smile appeared on Krillin's face. 'You believe that?'
'It's… not entirely true,' Tien said eventually.
'Which part?'
'It's as much a spiritual technique as a physical one, in my approximation.'
'Which is why you've gotten so good with it?'
Tien glanced at him. 'You can tell?'
'I can tell you're above me, at least,' Krillin said, his voice warm- even appreciative. 'And I wouldn't doubt it for a second that you trained with it more than me over these past two years.'
'You think?'
'I know,' Krillin said, turning fully to him. 'I had to get my life back in order after getting my body back. There was a year where I didn't touch Marron.' He held his attention on Tien for a few more seconds, then broke off in favor of the window again. 'Training was secondary to her and Rayne- I had to make up for lost time.'
'You don't have to apologize.'
Krillin smirked weakly. 'Is that what this sounds like? You misunderstand; I'm happy not to be the strongest- and, thus, most responsible for any screw-ups- person on this planet.'
'I'm happy, too.'
The quick comment hit Krillin like a slap. He held his hand to his face while he turned. 'You're not?...' His eyes searched his placid face. 'You're saying?...'
'The sun's rising,' Tien said blithely. His eyes, then body, turned away from the window. 'You'll see for yourself soon enough.'
0o0o0
In a desert choked by death and dust, where the air swirled and pelted against the sand or died against solid rock, he was beneath notice. Across the bleached land and brown bones of the Earth, lit by the slimmest glimmers of light, he walked, feet leaving the faintest imprints in the sand before a wayward wind brushed them away. He walked straightened, unbowed, unbroken, betraying nothing.
He was exactly where he intended to be- as insane that was to accept. Nothing in his life could have prepared him for this… nothing could have even allowed him to imagine it. Such a fantasy was delusional, a childish thing. So many would have died for it.
Children would not, and could not, have done that.
He could imagine what was left- the empty stares given by deep-set eyes drowning in memory, in hatred, in blood. There would have been so many willing… and, yet, he was alone here. Fit to intercede. To tamper.
This chance… this blessed, almost cursed chance… he was undeserving of it. But when did fate ever deal with horribly mortal concepts?
Three streaks appeared in the desert sky, red marks obscured by a growing storm of dust. He watched those marks carry themselves across the rim of the world and pass behind a mesa and beyond his field of vision.
He hesitated on the precipice, and lifted into the sandstorm after them. If fate did not care for mortals, then mortals should not care for fate.
The marks his black boots made in the sand lasted not even a second before they were swept away.
0o0o0
'Rock!'
'Yes, that's a rock.'
'Rock!'
'That's a rock, too!'
'ROOOOOCK!'
Scratching his head, the Ox-King gingerly squatted. Marron hadn't been able to sleep once her parents had woken her up and dropped her off here while they went off with typical fighting stuff. At Marron's suggestion- and Gohan's support, who had needed to go to the bathroom as soon as they were outside- he let her out into the courtyard just as the day was starting. They had watched the sunrise together, made a series of ooohs and aaahs until, somehow, that miracle bored her and she started strolling around the front courtyard, blue-green braid of hair swinging behind her head, eyes glued to the ground, searching.
And, then, she started pointing and yelling at rocks. Again. And again.
'Rock!' Marron said cheerfully, faux-stomping on one. 'Rock!'
'Rock, yes,' he muttered, yawning. 'Is there- is there anything special about the rocks, Marron?'
She turned to him. 'Spe-shul? Spe-shul what?'
'About the rocks,' he said, pointing. 'Something special about them to you?' He remembered how Gohan had collaborated to get them out here. 'Something special about them to Gohan?'
Surprise flew across Marron's face. 'Gohan?' she said, voice offended at the mere mention. She began to pout. 'Gohan mean!' Grimaced. 'Gohan liar!' she steamed, balling her hands into fists and stopping. 'Big liar!'
Confused, he frowned at her. 'You've only met him twice…'
Marron crossed her arms and threw her head to one side, flicking her braid. 'I still know!' she said, stubborn. 'Gohan mean! Gohan liar!'
She remained like that for a few more seconds before a butterfly, wings ribboned with azure and red, landed on her right elbow. Her eyes had just begun to open in childlike-wonder when the butterfly lifted off and fluttered away. 'Hey!' she called out, longing, 'come back!'
He watched her run after the butterfly- which was quite nimble, considering how much faster Marron was compared to the average kid. The courtyard was big enough that the poor bug would be chased for the next five minutes, easy.
So he figured this would be as good a time to check-in on Gohan. It wasn't that long ago that he had finished potty-training, after all...
Once back inside, he slowed, careful not to bang into any dimly lit furniture, and found the bathroom door closed. 'Gohan?' he asked, cupping his mouth to the door. 'You alright?'
No response. Bad sign. He didn't want to clean up a massive torrent of poop this early in the morning.
'Gohan?' he said, careful with his oft-thundering voice. 'I'm coming in now… it's okay if you had an accident, but you've been in there for a long time,' his massive hand settled on the doorknob, 'and if you don't clean up these types of messes right away, theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey… ey… Oh.'
Many years ago, when the mood of the village at the base of Fire Mountain was less than receptive to him and his daughter, he had gone about replacing every glass window in the castle with solid stone brick. This bathroom had one such modification-a narrow horizontal slit, where only the thinnest of light could reach inside, was set into the far wall.
Or had been, because the bathroom now had a boy shaped hole in the mortar-work, and beyond that, footprints belonging to a familiar purple dragon ran through the dirt adjacent to the castle.
For awhile the Ox-King crouched in front of that hole, surveying the tracks that lead away to the edge of the mountain, and made a quick guess of how long ago Gohan had sprung out. He scratched his beard, figured how far a dragon could get in a few minutes... and returned to the hole a minute later, brick, mortar, and pail in hand. No point in chasing down a flying kid when he couldn't do the same. Though…
He gulped. I hope Chi-Chi sees the logic in that...
0o0o0
From behind a nearby outcrop of rock, Gohan watched his grandpa reappear and start to brick-up his escape hole. With a heavy sigh, he relaxed and slid down the rock's back. 'Woo... ' he threw a relieved smile to his companion. 'That was close, huh Icarus?'
Gohan's smile melted as soon as he saw the purple dragon's forlorn position on the ground. 'Ic?' Gohan asked, moving over. 'What's wrong?'
Oblivious to his concerned appearance, Icarus rolled over, shook his head wearily back-and-forth, and made a series of sad mewling sounds.
'I'm sorry, Ic…' he rubbed the dragon's belly. 'But Mom and Mr. Yamcha were really scared… I know you were sleeping… but I need to find out why…'
In response to his circular, reassuring rubbing, Icarus lifted and inquisitively cocked his head towards him. He mewled again, softer.
'We can make a stop, sure,' Gohan said, smiling again and patting Icarus's belly. 'They're still moving, anyway.'
'Braaaaagh!' Filled with sudden vigor, Icarus shot up and danced back-and-forth, feet digging and springing from the grass, before turning his back to Gohan.
He wasted no time climbing onto the dragon's back and gently tugging on his wings 'Yip!'
With a matching cheer, Icarus pumped his wings and flew into the sky. Wind swept over both of them as rose- just in time to see the sun finally fully clear the horizon.
0o0o0
They were close- fine grains of sand now rushed past the ship's sole window, carpeting the air and obscuring the sun- when a lightning bolt of ki collided against Piccolo's senses. Before he knew what he was doing, white-hot energy flared from his body, and his lungs tightened-
'STOP!'
The back-and-forth conversation flowing through the rest of the ship died immediately, as every speaker spun, alarmed, by the random outburst. Even Bulma, all the way in the cockpit, shot her head around to glance back.
In the corner, thick waves of white ki pulsed and rolled off of Piccolo like steam… and, with a conscious effort, the Namekian remembered where he was, cloaked his energy again, and holding an expression of frustration and twitchy fear, hurried past the stunned others and stopped behind Bulma's seat. She stared at the cowed crowd, then reluctantly looked to him.
'Land the ship now,' Piccolo commanded, urgency ringing through his voice. 'We go the rest of the way on foot.'
Krillin stopped behind him. 'That, just now- you felt that before us?'
'Yes,' Piccolo said tersely. Stupid!… His mind raced, replaying the last several seconds. Any idiot with half a ki sense would have been able to sense that!...
Four kis… what the hell is going on?
0o0o0
'Scouter just picked up another reading, Vegeta.'
They were arranged in a backward V- with himself and his ship at the front of it, as was his preference. Nappa, behind and to his left, stood near his ship and periodically read out readings on his scouter while he dusted himself off.
It was also the case that they had landed on a mesa, which lorded like a cliff above the desert in all places except for Vegeta's side, where it leveled off and dropped gracefully to the desert floor. As it was, he commanded an unparalleled view of this world- Earth.
He was not impressed but what he saw- but so many ideas as to improve it flowed through his head as the wind tugged and pulled at his red cape. I'm going to enjoy my time here...
'About 10,000 units a few miles off,' Nappa finished, his gravelly voice sinking into the sand.
'Larger than the one near us?'
Nappa snorted. 'Hardly.'
Vegeta cast one eye over his right shoulder; he saw Turles, dressed in a fresh set of PTO armor- with shoulder-guards and brown plating, same as his- stand dutifully next to his ship. After the last planet, he had been instructed to not move until Vegeta gave him explicit permission to do so.
Nappa could be trusted to guard his pod if Turles ever tried to barge his way in, but the older Saiyan was prone to… distraction, and Turles was nothing if not scheming…
His glare found Turles's face, and satisfied by the visceral reaction he caused, Vegeta turned his attention back forward. Better to collar a mangy dog that couldn't win a fight on its own, anyway…
Smacking sounds reached him from Nappa's corner. 'Damn thing,' he complained. 'I'm picking up all sorts of random readings. Think this storm is messing with its instruments.'
'The shoddiness of the PTO never ceases to amaze me,' Vegeta said humorlessly. Before him the storm curled and undulated, like a great wave rising and collapsing in on itself. 'How close is that larger reading now?'
'Hold on… damn this thing…'
There were a few more clunking sounds- and then an abrupt stop. 'They're close.' Nappa announced.
'How close?'
'...they're close.'
Vegeta, peering through the dust of the desert, spotted a lone figure, nothing more than a black outline, slow-walking through the storm towards the mesa they had landed on.
And his mind, as it did, deduced the obvious.
'We're in for a treat, Nappa,' Vegeta said as a wry smile crept onto his face. 'I believe they're sending out their champion.'
A/N: Happy whatever day it is for you! Sorry about the longer-than-1 ½ week wait for this chapter- we've reached a point in the fic where I had to commit to a number of different storylines, and, crucially, had to figure out how to weave their general structure and disassembling into the larger narrative. That stuff required some extra thinky-bakey time.
Also, I did something atypical and completely rewrote some scenes in this chapter. I think that happened because I took so long to get this chapter out, so… let's try to avoid that in the future! lol. I'd much rather keep the train chugging along than try and perfect every chapter.
The plus side to all of this, however, is that I've written good chunks of the next four or so chapters. So- something to look forward to!
Reviews:
Transformers g1's-Prime: Thank you for the kind words! Bardock and Kakarot are a fun combo for me to write, so def expect them soon!
LWexe: Here, for your reading pleasure, is the chapter you can see!
Silenthawk170: Nah, that'd be cruel to do without giving even a hint of something being wrong with Bulma/ Ginyu… but there's nothing there, right? ;).
TienFan99: Glad you liked it! And as for your suggestions for the Ginyu scene might be improved- check back, and you'll see I added a few touches here and there to really sell the ruse.
Of course they'll be consequences ;)... imagine if you were in a giant purple man's body for a year.
Not gonna spoil anything, but I agree with athletes' strength decreasing in the way you described it.
Most people have theorized the same about differences in power scaling between Saiyans-Namekians-Humans. Hard to know conclusively considering we never got a human perspective on training from (arguably) the beginning of DBZ on, but I generally agree with it. I've also read the arguments of some who say Saiyan power levels plateau in a similar way once they unlocked Super Saiyan, and strength increases occur in conjunction with unlocking a new form.
You could probably guess this, but if this fic goes the distance… it's likely that I've done some extensive thinking on the capabilities of humans. Lol. I'm saying nothing more.
You'll find out how well everyone learned the Kaioken next chapter- maybe! Who knows what the heck is going on!
I like Kame house too ;).
Cityracer: I imagine there's a dragonball sliding puzzle out there that's identical to what you described.
I'm glad you bought my characterization! Impersonating the galaxy's overlord is a high-wire act… definitely requires a competent person to pull that off.
If you check last chapter, you'll see that I retroactively added some power levels. Enjoy!
I answered most of your stuff on relationships via PM- as for what I would add, I agree that relationships in fics have to pass the "in character test", where two characters could feasibly pair up together.
It's funny that you mentioned the Bruce/Natasha relationship from Avengers 2 as a bad example of a relationship in media- the director of Avengers 2, Joss Whedon, was notorious for pushing that angle to the chagrin of other producers at Marvel Studios. Thus, that line was completely dropped in the next Avengers movie.
There was, obviously, a scene between Chi-Chi and Yamcha in this chapter. Tell me what you think!
If ever rewrite this fic, I will probably do what you suggested. That's not to say that I didn't like how I did it the first time- I think your version would get the relevant facts across in a shorter period of time, though.
Makes sense with me! As I said before, what position any given reader takes on the "canonness" of the Namekian backstory doesn't matter to me. Do whatever makes you understand/appreciate the story best.
Mr. Legoman: Thank you for sticking with the fic until the end! Looking forward to whatever insightful comments you might give in the future!
